The South

I can't believe it's been almost a month since the last time I wrote. Things have gotten absolutely crazy here in Spain!! I've been super busy with homework--reading several Spanish books and writing papers in Spanish. I still have a few more things to read, two papers to write, and two exams coming up by the 18th of November. Today's the 9th. If you do the math, you realize that that's a lot to do and very little time. Then the 19th of November we have our "graduation" and group party and then the 20th of November, I am headed to the airport. Destination=ITALY!!

Anyway, I'm going to try and use my quiet Sunday here in Spain to update you all on my last few trips. The last time I updated my blog was right before we left on our week long trip to the south of Spain. So that's where I'm going to pick up.

So Tuesday, October 14th, our group met at the train station at 7:50am to leave on our "big" trip. We start off by going to Consuegra where we saw the windmills of Don Quijote and acted out a short scene and took some pictures. Then we were off to our first real destination--Cordoba. Our first stop was la Mezquita. It had over 850 double arches that were red and white...it was absolutely gorgeous! I can't do justice to it trying to describe it, so I will just let you see it in the pictures. (I sent a postcard of the arches to you guys...aka the family...so, you should have a good picture of it.) After exploring that, we walked around the city. We saw an old roman bridge, an old waterwheel, and a few statues and monuments. Then a group fo us went out to eat. I got some Turkish Kebabs with a few other girls. (The kebabs are amazing, and there are these little Turkish Kebab places all over Spain.) Anyway, then we met up with some other groups in the plaza and all hung out and talked for a bit. The plaza was really cool because it was different than all the other plazas we had seen in Spain. It was all done in Arabic style architecture. Anyway, while we're sitting there talking, some gypsies start performing a fire dance in the middle of the plaza. So we watched them dance with fire, eat the fire, and put the fire down their pants for a while before heading back to the hotel.

Then the next morning we had an amazing breakfast with real food, not just crouissants and coca coa as is normal on our excursions. After breakfast, we headed back to the city where we saw the Alcazar de los Reyes Catolicos, a jewish synagoge, and a monument to Maimonides. The Alcazar was amazing! The gardens were absolutely gorgeous. Then we tried finding a grocery store to pick up some food for lunch but somehow ended up at a McDonalds. So we ate there instead and then headed to the bus. As we were all headed to the bus, we found out that one of the girls from our group was missing. No one had seen her for a couple of hours. So we sent people to search the places we'd visited and the hotel to see if they could find her. They didn't have any success, so we ended up having to call the police. Finally, the professor got a call from her on his cell phone, and the hotel owner was able to go pick her up in his car and bring her back to the bus. It turns out she had fallen asleep in the gardens and didn't wake up until everyone else had already left because we all just left whenever we wanted since we had free time to explore and buy lunch. Anyway, then when she left, someone was following her, and when she tried to lose him, she got lost. It all worked out in the end though.

After that we headed to Medina Azahara. It was the capital of Al-Andalus during the reign of Ab Abdherman III. So we explored the ruins of the old city/palace. They had some fruit trees there that were Madrilenos, which is the symbol of Madrid. The translation of that is strawberry tree, but ps, they're not really strawberries. Strawberries don't grow on trees. They were pretty good though.

After exploring the ruins, we got back on the bus and headed to our next big stop, Sevilla. After checking in to our hotel, we had the rest of the night free. So, we got our maps out and marked them up with the sites we wanted to see, then hit the town. We went to the ayuntamiento to look at the fachada and then went to the archivo de las indias where they have some fo Christopher Columbus' journals. It was closed, so we only got to look at the outside, but that was cool because it was designed by the same person that designed El Escorial which we had visited previously. (There should be pictures of it up on past blog posts...that's the place where I got lost :) )

Anyway, after that we headed to an Italian restaurant to eat and then to the hotel to go to bed. Angela, Stella, and I could crawl out our window and use the few inches of roof as a little balcony...kinda scary, but super fun. So we talked out there for a while before going to bed.

The next morning, we had breakfast delivered to our rooms before heading to the Real Alcazar de Sevilla. Once again the gardens were amazing! After that we went to the Cathedral. In the cathedral was the Giralda, which is an old tower. To get to the top though, there were 35 ramps instead of stairs. They made it that way so that they could ride horses to the top...haha. Anyway, I walked up all 35 ramps and got to see the amazing view of the city. Then we went to a little Spanish restaurant. I had a Spanish Tortilla Bocadillo and then we went and explored more of the city. We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, so we could explore at our own leisure. We saw the torre de oro and the Plaza de Espana. They filmed part of the first Star Wars Movie at the Plaza de Espana in Sevilla, so that was cool. We also went to the parque de Marie Louis and did some shopping before heading back to the hotel.

Once we got to the hotel, we had a little bit to get ready before we headed out for Flamenco night. First of all, we all went out to dinner as a group and had some amazing tapas. Then we walked as quickly as we could to the Flamenco Bar. It was called Patio de Sevillano, and the dancing, singing, guitar playing was all fantastic. Flamenco isn't just a dance, but it is the dancing, singing, guitar, clapping, everything all together. The dancers were great. Then we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

The next day after breakfast we headed out for Granada, our last big stop. We went to the Capilla Real there and saw the tombs of Fernando and Isabel (the ones that helped Christopher Columbus with his little exploration) and also saw the tombs of Juana la Loca and Felipe el Hermosa. Then we walked to the Alhambra and had a lunch stop before going in. We spent over 5 hours inside the Alhambra and easily could have spent several more!! It was soooo gorgeous. It was the palace and gardens of the Moorish kings at the height of their reign before they had to be signed over to the Reyes Catolicos in 1498 (Isabel and Ferdinand--you know, the ones that helped Columbus). Washington Irving, the writer, lived there for a little bit to write the Tales of the Alhambra, and then after he had that published, they fixed them up and they became a big tourist place. Before that, they weren't really important at all. Also, we were told that it used to not cost much for the tickets there, but that after Bill Clinton went and visited about 6 or so years ago and raved about how amazing they are, they jacked the ticket prices way up. Way to go Bill, you just have to mess up everything don't you...j/k. They are now one of the must see sites in Spain...and man, it was amazing!! Oh, and I made a little Spanish friend there, Alejandro. He was a cute little Spanish boy that came up and started talking to me while I was working in my cuaderno.

After the Alhambra, we got on the bus and headed to our hotel which was a little ways outside of the city. After a quick dinner, we just went to bed. Then the next morning, we had a short bus ride back to the city before seeing the old Moorish baths and an old Corral were they performed plays during the Golden Age. Then we were free to do some shopping...and let me tell you, I got you guys some amazing stuff!! I can't wait until Christmas!!

Then we got some stuff to eat and got on the bus for our 5-hr ride back home to Alcala.